Ascent to Madness
by Flames of Nocturne
Summary: Sakura always wondered if the presence of her Inner was worth worrying over but never did. Now she regrets ever prying into the reasons why. Falling into her shattered grasp of reality all she has left is to ask: "Is that a pumpkin on your head?" Halloween One-Shot / Slight Cross with Guild Wars 2 /


Okay, I know many people who are waiting for my other fic are probably pissed at me now but I've had major writer's block with my English 300 class literally sucking my imagination out of me. It took me all of October to even do this, and it's just 6k words. Ugh, well here's a Halloween-y plot bunny that won't leave me alone, hope you enjoy!

_I do not own Naruto, nor do I own Guild Wars or Guild Wars 2._

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Verdant green eyes stared blankly; watching the waving branches of a tree shake with the force of the wind which blew through the night, its feathery chill brushing lightly over the exposed skin of a young girl, her bright pink hair dancing in the breeze. Feeling slightly chilled Sakura pulled her knees closer to herself before wrapping her arms around them to hold them in place while still balancing upon the branch she was perched on high in the treetops in an abandoned training field. Ever since the mission in Wave she had come to enjoy sitting high up in the branches, using her chakra to walk up trees had become second nature and she could do it in her sleep. Now she always perched up in the branches; sitting upon the tree branches much like the sakura blossoms that were her namesake, whenever she wanted to simply be alone.

This night was no different from any other she spends alone in the tree, and yet it was a night unlike any other. Sakura curled tighter into herself, not from the cold but almost as though it could defend her from her own thoughts, her own self-doubts.

'_But what good would it do me?'_ She thought to herself, '_I couldn't defend myself from what other people said; I needed Ino-pig to do it for me, it should only make sense that even my own thoughts hurt.'_

And it was true; she mused to herself, how often had she needed Ino to defend her from taunting bullies? How often had she stayed behind and waited for Sasuke-kun or even Naruto to rescue her? Kakashi-sensei never gave her serious consideration for her training, and she had never truly committed herself now that she looked back with burning guilt. '**SHUT UP! Why are you thinking like that? We aren't weak! We dealt with those Sound freaks and protected Sasuke-kun, SHANNARO!'**

Sakura's mouth tweaked a depreciating smile, her Inner personality's pep-talk that usually would inspire confidence only added to the flames of her regrets. "But did we? We were knocked out and didn't even make it to the second round of the Chūnin exams. And we needed Lee-san, his team and Sasuke-kun to save us in the forest." She beat her fist uselessly against the thick branch she sat on, tears welling in her eyes, "Face it Inner, we are…"

Inner's monochrome form appeared in front of her, glaring daggers from her eyes and face in a deep scowl, **"Don't say it!" **she threatened, but Sakura had enough.

"We. Are. Weak!" She shouted at Inner. Somewhere in the back of her mind she was sure if someone were around to see she would be carted off to some insane asylum.

Across from her Inner let out a gasp of outrage before acting out a heart attack and falling onto her back. "I can't fight, I only know the Academy taijutsu, I have only the basic three ninjutsu, no genjutsu!" She cried out, "What use am I? Perfect chakra control? Pfft, I have no real amount of chakra to control! I'm useless…" Sakura cried, tears trailing down her cheeks.

"**SHANNARO!"** Inner snarled, **"We ain't useless! We set up camp, cooked and helped with first-aid kits for Naruto-baka and Sasuke-kun on all those missions!"**

Sakura just scoffed, "I sound like a civilian caretaker," She mumbled, "What use am I in a fight?"

For once it seemed Inner had no answer. Both young girls; insubstantial and real sat in silence for a moment, each lost within their own thoughts until Inner spoke in a hesitant tone so unlike her usual self it unnerved Sakura. **"Want to play Rock-Paper-Scissors?"**

For a few moments Sakura didn't even register the question. Inner was giving her a strangely calculating look, grey eyes assessing. When she did understand the question an incredulous expression took over her face, as she asked in a flat tone, "Rock-Paper-Scissors?"

Inner grinned, **"Yea! I love that game."**

Feeling somewhat weirded out but deciding to go for it with a mental '_what the heck, might as well,'_ both girls held their hands out in front of each other.

"One,"

"**Two"**

"Three"

"**Go!"**

Both hands held rock.

Sakura gave the scene a bemused grin but Inner merely cackled, **"A tie? Ha ha ha ha ha. Great minds think alike, do they not?"**1

Rolling her eyes Sakura responded, "Course we do, we're both Sakura remember?"

Inner merely gave her a smirk, an approving glint in her eyes that made Sakura wonder if she had passed some test. **"We are but reflections in a mirror it seems, parallel souls."**

Sakura didn't know how to reply to the enigmatic statement, but Inner continued. **"So alike, so different, circumstances in the same ever twining rope of déjà vu and the unknown."**

Now the pinkette was even more lost, her usual intelligence left behind by the riddles. Inner turned from the full moon to stare at Sakura, the silvery light washing though her, making her appear as just a faded silhouette with the base facial features. Not for the first time Sakura wondered for her sanity, this aspect of herself she could see like a ghost of herself.

"**Tell me Sakura, how many times have we been scorned? Rejected? Called weak? Useless?"** Inner implored, gesturing with each question that made the pinkette wince inside. **"Tell me that you aren't tired of it; convince me that you accept it. Prove to me that you don't hurt every time Sasuke-kun ignores you, that it doesn't hurt every time Kakashi-sensei passes us over for one of your teammates? Can you?"**

Sakura tried to defend her teammates and sensei, tried to defend her crush. But the words lodged in her throat. How could she lie to herself? She couldn't deny that each time Sasuke shrugged her off it _hurt_, it tore at her that she was so beneath his notice he wouldn't even giver her any recognition. Even Naruto; who she knew at least meant well, had hurt her by treating her like a porcelain doll. Could she even call Kakashi her sensei? What had he really taught _her?_ He taught the _team_ about working together, taught the _team_ tree climbing, but what about just Sakura?

"**You can't, can you?"** Inner's voice broke through her thoughts.

She hung her head. No, Sakura could not defend her team, and had just admitted as such by her own silence. "I tried, I tried so hard." She choked out, "I looked up genjutsu scrolls in the library, but I just couldn't do them." She admitted, "I know the theory, but it just won't work. I was told I could specialize in genjutsu, so why won't it work for me?" Tears once more washed down Sakura's cheeks.

"**Erm- that would be because of me."**

Sakura's head snapped up at the sheepish admission. "What?"

Inner looked mildly offended, **"Did you never once wonder **_**exactly**_** what I am before you brushed me off as a separate personality in your head? Or at least wonder a **_**teeny tiny**_** bit about what I'm capable of after I kicked Ino-pig's ass out of our head?" **she deadpanned.

"Erm- no?"

Inner face-palmed.

"**The reason genjutsu doesn't work for you is because of me," **Sakura nodded, she remembered from a few seconds ago, **"It's because they're too…different from what I'm used to. I'd almost say to weak."**

Sakura felt her jaw drop, "Weak?" She asked before a niggling in her brain drew her attention to the rest of her Inner's sentence, "And what do you mean 'different'? Different how?"

Inner gave no reply as a large menacing grin stretched over her face, filling Sakura with a strange sense of foreboding, **"They are stronger this night 'neath the baleful full moon; the memories once past. For on this Hallowed Eve night the Mists part for mortal eye, though Grenth's mercy shall not last." ** She intoned.

Green eyes widened as a piercing pain lanced through Sakura's skull, her hands flying up to hold her head as the throbbing pulsed with Inner's echoing words. "What-?"

"**A different world, a different time, a different life." **Her inner elaborated, **"I was never just another facet of your mind; but a phantom of your soul, a remnant of a previous incarnation."**

And then it clicked. Reincarnation. Sakura stared at the shadowed hallucination of her Inner Former self. A different world? Did she mean from before the legends of the Sage of Six Paths? Or something else? She wasn't given much time to ponder it though as a ghostly hand was held out in front of her.

"**You are at a crossroads,"** Inner spoke, **"You can choose to continue with your life, and my memories will fade. I'll become as you always thought I was and this will all seem but a strange dream. Or…"** She paused, **"Or you can break the seal, let me once more become who I was and let me teach you of things only I know. I can only offer this chance on this thirteenth Halloween night under the full moon so choose wisely but be warned."** Inner's eyes hardened, **"Once you accept you can **_**never**_** go back."**

Sakura stared at the offered hand.

Should she accept? The offer of new knowledge was tantalizing and beyond tempting, but what was the price? Was the inevitable change worth the risk of the unknown? Wasn't she happy with her life? It was as the last question crossed her mind that the dam broke. Sakura recalled every time she was ignored by her sensei, every time Sasuke called her weak, pathetic or useless, every time someone jumped in between her and danger without giving her a chance to prove herself. But most importantly she remembered how easily she was defeated in the Forest of Death, how pathetic she was, and how she had _needed_ to be saved _again_.

Green eyes sharpening with determination Sakura glared at her Inner directly in the eye before reaching out. And firmly clenching her hand around the surprisingly solid hand held out to her.

At that very moment reality shattered; the sound of breaking glass echoing across the entirety of the world as great cracks formed in the sky, the ground, the tree upon which Sakura sat, and even upon the form of Inner Sakura.

"**Good choice"**

And it was then reality fell apart. The pieces of the world fell away, revealing a deep black sky filled with blood red clouds and infinitely many stars. The craters of the moon changed to reveal a grinning, glaring face; taunting her with its many sharp teeth and empty gaze. The shattering image of Inner however broke away to uncover a terrifying visage. The hand holding hers changed from flesh to cold hard iron, a gauntlet with clawed tips. Emerging from the full forearm length gauntlet Sakura could see bone before it was covered by the tattered sleeves of what was once a gown of finery but now the rotted dress of the dead with its muddy browns and faded deep purple, the gown torn away completely at the midriff to show vertebrae. An amulet of a glossy orange demonic eye lay proudly upon Inner's upper chest and as Sakura's frightened eyes traveled upwards she froze upon seeing her face. It was a pumpkin, carved with narrowed eyes and a cruel Cheshire grin, a black iron crown adorned the top and before her very eyes it breathed. And was awash with flames. The pumpkin ignited but did not burn, flames trailing from the eyes and mouth, sputtering up from the neck to wreath the head in blazing orange. Smaller flames; more like mere embers, sparked from each joint, giving the skeleton a fiery glow. Buffeting Sakura with a gentle heat as she stared amazed that the form did not burn.

For a moment in time nothing moved, and then that pumpkin head tilted to the side, carved grin somehow widening, **"You have nothing to fear! Actually, you have much to fear, but it's best not to think on it."**

And then she fell.

The new form of Inner vanished into two dimensional shards of an image before fading away entirely leaving Sakura to fall through the dark space with no end in sight. A scream tore itself out of her throat, weightlessness flooded her body and Sakura felt herself flipping and turning with no sense of control as she fell into the black abyss. The only constant was the fear hammering itself into every fiber of her being, _'What have I done? I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'M GOING TO DIE!'_

Then in a few more terrifying moments, in which Sakura was sure that if she ever found a bottom to wherever she was she would be nothing more than a smear on the ground, she suddenly crashed into hard stone. The sudden assault on her senses was overwhelming, where there was nothing but black darkness with red clouds and eerie stars with pressing silence and nothing to smell or feel, her new situation was vastly different. All around her was the structure of an elaborate stone castle, rich tapestries depicting beasts and figures she had never even imagined decorated the walls. She could smell the firewood burning in a nearby fireplace, hear the crackling of the fire and feel the pressing warmth emanating from it along with the slight draft wafting from some deeper part of the castle.

It was only after she noticed her surroundings that Sakura realized she was _not_ a smudge on the ground, '_Not even a bruise.'_ She mused in shock.

A loud bang startled the pinkette into a defensive stance as her hand twitched to her kunai pouch only to find it empty. Cursing in her mind Sakura looked back up to see Inner waltzing into the room, her new decayed and burning form at odds with the well maintained finery around them.

"**Ah! The young flower, come to see the show?"** Inner asked while gesturing grandiosely, carved grin widening. **"Just go with the flow. Ignore your questions for now, you'll get your answers I vow." **Inner giggled as she finished.

Eye twitching at the rhymes and muttering that it better not last, Sakura turned and gasped. Two boys; their forms vaguely transparent much like how her Inner used to be, ran past her before turning a corner and vanishing from sight. But the thing that got to Sakura most was how the younger one was nearly identical to Sasuke; the only difference being the fact that the boy had brown hair instead of black, while the older boy was clearly related to the younger. "Wha- was that? How?"

Inner twirled on one metal encased foot, **"Hmm, such a pity when you consider their fates, young Oswald and Ewan."** She paused and sent a sly look over to a still shocked Sakura, **"Quite similar to that of two other boys you know…eerily similar me thinks."**

It was then another ghostly image appeared, once more sending Sakura into shock as it was a brown eyed clone of herself, pink hair and all even though she could see slight differences in facial structure. The spectral girl ran down a nearby staircase, halting at the doorway and calling out the two names Inner had mentioned causing the two boys to show back up. It was a touching scene as the older embraced the girl and a deep blush spread over her face before she ruffled the hair of the younger who squawked in indignation before all three chattered in an unknown language before vanishing again.

"**Things were so simple and happy back then,"**

Sakura whipped, Inner's fire had dimmed, sputtering almost sadly and the carved grin had lessened to almost a frown. "You mean, the girl who looked like me… was you?" She asked, mind whirling.

"**Indeed, I was the daughter of a noble and a dear friend to the royal family of Kryta. I fell in love with Prince Ewan."** She explained, ignoring Sakura's shout of "PRINCE?!" and continuing, **"Lady Lyrica my name was when I was alive, and Ewan cared for me so much. Just as much as he cared for his brother Oswald, always wanting to protect his younger…murderous, treacherous, FOUL, UNGRATEFUL, DEMENTED BROTHER!" **

Sakura backed away a step as Inner, no Lyrica's flames returned as an inferno. Hands clenched and feet spread wide with anger rolling off her, the world shattering once more as her words ended in a howl of rage.

This time though, the pieces of the world fell quickly and revealed a forest rather than empty abyss. Sakura was mildly relieved at the simple change of setting and the absence of Lyrica before she caught sight of the two brothers again, this time older as the elder brother appeared to be in his early twenties. Deciding she had nothing else to do Sakura studied them, trying to decide why they would be in a forest since they clearly weren't ninja. She guessed they were hunters from the bows and hunting knives they carried, though she didn't know what they were tracking as the footprints they were following were nothing like what she had read about in the academy. Listening to the brothers' words didn't give her any clues either as they spoke a strange language, but the word "Moa" came up the most often so she assumed it was the unknown creature's name.

"**Young Oswald was full of jealousy, wanting the throne for himself . . . and he wanted to take me from sweet Ewan." **

Sakura paled as she heard Lyrica's disembodied words echo through the forest. But it didn't prepare her for the massive spider that suddenly dropped from the treetops. Screaming in horror at the massive arachnid as it stalked closer to the two brothers, tanto length fangs dripping with venom and clacking against each other ominously. Sakura tried to run, but she suddenly felt her body become so slow and legarthic it felt as though only her mind and eyes could move. '_Move damn it, MOVE!'_

Praying that it was a genjutsu holding her in place Sakura tried every method she knew, even going so far as to biting her lip till it bled, "Kai, kai, KAI!"

Behind her the two brothers let out shouts before turning to run, Sakura saw them scrambling away, leaving her for bait as tears sprung to her eyes. But just when she thought the massive spider would lunge for her it instead spat out a glob of gooey silk past her, aiming straight towards Oswald. Only for Ewan to tackle him out of the way and instead get his feet trapped to the ground . She couldn't help the guilty sigh of body numbing relief at the thought of the arachnid ignoring her, but stared on in horror as Ewan reached out an arm pleading for his young brother to help him as he took his hunting knife and began cutting at the webs as the spider advanced menacingly. '_At the rate Ewan's cutting the webbing if Oswald helps he'll be free in time to escape…'_ Sakura thought with a small smile, glad that the two brothers would live.

Only to let out a scream of outrage as Oswald turned around and left his older brother behind. Abandoned the brother who had saved him.

"NO! WHAT ARE YOU DOING! SAVE HIM!" But her words fell on deaf ears as Oswald vanished into the forest, and Ewan's screams as the spider dug into his flesh as Sakura finally felt her body capable of movement only for her fists to pass through the spider as though she were the ghost. "Why? Why would he leave him?" She sobbed to herself, tears cascading down her face as once more the world shattered.

Once more Sakura found herself in the castle, this time the throne room. But she didn't care, how could someone; a brother, leave another to die like that? How could Oswald leave his brother behind even after Ewan had just saved him? Sakura watched with apathetic eyes as the brown-haired Sasuke was crowned, a smug grin on his face as he stepped down and comforted a teary eyed Lyrica. Did she know that her love's murderer was the very one holding her as she cried?

"**Oswald deceived me with acts of kindness and sympathy," **Lyrica appeared in a whirl of flames, **"He pulled the wool over my father's eyes, convincing him to change my betrothal contract from Ewan to himself." **She loomed over Oswald's still smirking transparent form, a strange carving knife in her hand trailing over his neck but was unnoticed.** "The reign of King Oswald Thorn was nasty, brutish, and short. His first act as king was to execute Lord Humphrey Faren for accusing him of murdering his father, which he had done to gain the throne." ** Sakura watched as a man appeared only to be beheaded, flinching and averting her eyes from the sight. **"Declaring all traitors would be punished without delay. Later in his reign, famine and drought struck Kryta, but the high taxes drove some peasants to theft and others to starvation. King Thorn rounded up all citizens who were even suspected of theft and cut off their hands." **With each sentence the castle fell into further disrepair, the courtiers becoming more hysterical, and the very air more depressing as a strange gleam Sakura recognized as madness took over Oswald's eyes.

"**Unsatisfied with taking his brother's life and everything he had, Oswald grew bored of me."** Lyrica hissed, **"He arranged for my murder at the hands of common thugs!" **Her grip on the carving knife tightened before the blade was slashed through the Sasuke-look-a-like's ghostly image, causing it to ripple and for that ripple to spread through the world, distorting it like a watery wash to show an open road with only a carriage being drawn by two horses. Suddenly dark shapes took form and began assaulting the carriage, great hulking figures wielding massive weapons hacking at the horses and slashing at the carriage as screams came from inside.

"**But I was not a Mesmer; a magical duelist who wielded deception as a weapon for nothing. Using powerful illusions, clones, and phantasmal magic to confuse and distract my supposed to be killers, I made sure the fight was twisted in my favor and when I was done with them, they didn't trust their own minds.**" Sakura watched on in amazement as Lyrica jumped out of the carriage, and with naught but her two knives; which she recognized as identical to the one she held to Oswald's throat, fended off her multiple attackers. Lyrica would lunge at a shadow, after-images trailing behind her only for the thug to slash through the first one and have it shatter. The fragments cut into shadowy skin and muscle like real glass as the real Lyrica stabbed the thug with one blade and use the other to deflect a blow from a great sword. Her form blurred as she pressed the attack, leaving openings that her opponent attempted to exploit only to suddenly find a knife ready to block and where the weapon once was a fading illusion. Steadily and methodically Lyrica would back an opponent into an empty space only for a pink smokey and whispy clone of herself to appear just long enough to sink insubstantial blades into his back and then vanish back to non-existence. When down to the last two opponents she vanished in a swirl of sharp fuchsia shards and reappeared a short distance away similar to shushin before waving her hand and causing a dome to encase the two remaining thugs. Within the dome crackled insubstantial lightning and smoke with constantly vanishing and reappearing mirrors. Sakura could do nothing more than gape in awe at the design of the illusions and tactics displayed. It wasn't just genjutsu, this was true illusion and she would be lying if she said she didn't desperately want to learn how to mold the very world around her like how Lyrica was displaying.

The two shaded thugs had their senses completely overwhelmed, the flashing reflections and instinctive but unnecessary dodges of lightning ended up confusing them so much that they both blindly lunged at the nearest figure in reach; which happened to be each other. **"Knowing it was Oswald who tried to have me killed I hid in the country, and watched as he took wife, not the slightest bit guilty or repentant."**

Sakura turned to see Lyrica leaning so close to her that she was literally centimeters from the pumpkin face of her previous incarnation. Letting out a slight scream of surprise the world shifted once more to the castle, but this time it was burning to the ground and corpses lay strewn about. Oswald stood alone in the throne room, crown broken on the floor and blood spattered over his face, the insanity lighting his black eyes making Sakura step back as her mind shifted and she saw Sasuke as he was in the Forest of Death after that strange seal activated in Oswald's place. **"I rallied the people to oppose King Thorn, led them in rebellion to put down the monster of a monarch."**

A phantasmal Lyrica stalked into the room, knives held ready and it was in the flickering firelight that Sakura finally got a good look at them. They were a deep black, with no guard and only the length of roughly a foot of curved and sharpened metal. There was no guard and the hilt was a deep red; but whether it was from the blood coating the blades or the natural color Sakura was unsure. They were simple yet elegant, forged with a single purpose and radiating deadly intent.

"**Oh how I loved getting my revenge on Oswald." **Lyrica's voice sighed in Sakura's ear as she saw another breathtaking battle of reality bending take place, Oswald's ineptitude blatantly obvious and Lyrica's skills painfully more advanced than his own. It wasn't long before both dark knives were held crossed on his neck and his longsword thrown to the ground while his shield uselessly hanging on his arm. **"And with him at my mercy, it was off with his head!"**

Lyrica scissored her knives and with a wet squelch Sakura averted her eyes.

"**And to prevent any possible chance of him being brought back, and to seal his soul in the Mists of the afterlife, I sacrificed myself."**

Sakura's head whipped up in surprise at Lyrica's words just in time to see an explosion of energy and what she thought was fuchsia chakra blast from the room and engulf her, once more changing the world as she closed her eyes and braced for an impact that never came. When she opened her eyes once more it was to a scene of eerie toxic green lake fading away to pale mist, a lone crumbling yet still standing clock tower emerged from the very center, pieces of rubble and gears swirling around it as the cruelly grinning moon leered down upon the strange scene. Sakura found herself inside the clock tower at the very top, looking out through a shattered opening in one of the clock faces as the unnatural landscape before her set her senses on edge. **"And it was well that I did so, for Oswald gained power in death that he never had in life… becoming the Antic Harrower, Autumn Lunatic, Grim Japer, Indelible Fright, the spirit of fear and Halloween itself. He gained dominion of the Mad Realm and became Mad King Thorn."**

The clouds in the sky shifted to form what appeared to be a male version of the undead Lyrica, dressed in rotted earth-tone regalia and a burning pumpkin head. **"My sacrificial seal was enough to keep him in his own demented, deranged world for three hundred and sixty-four days of the year, weakening on the anniversary of our death on October thirty-first. A time when he returns to plague the land and unleash his madness upon the living." **

Sakura turned around to see Lyrica lounging on a royal chair of her own within the ever moving gears of the clock tower, playing with her knives in a bored manner. "Why did you show me this?"

Lyrica shifted in her seat, **"Because of my seal and the fact that it was I who killed the Mad King, I too was dragged into his Realm. I am the Mad Queen, the one who comes and drags his orange ass back to the afterlife and threatens to make pumpkin pie every time he whines. SHANNARO!"**

Sweatdropping at the familiar semi-warcry and matching fist pump Sakura couldn't help the sarcastic remark that slipped out, "Would the pie be cannibalism?"

Flames brightening as Lyrica laughed raucously Sakura thought to herself, _'What have I gotten myself into?'_

"**That was one of the best jokes I've heard in centuries! Do you have any idea how dull it is dealing with a lunatic who thinks it funny to come back from the dead and announce himself to the public and when someone cries 'Milord, you have a pumpkin for a head!' he pretends to be hard of hearing and makes the poor man repeat himself to which he replies, 'I'm sorry, I can't hear you for I have a pumpkin as a head!' by Lyssa the jokes make me want to puke."** She complained, somehow giving Sakura the impression that she was rolling her eyes.

"**But that's not the reason I showed you all of this," **Lyrica waved, **"Don't you remember our little deal? Well, I suppose it isn't really all that little now but let's just go with what I said."**

Sakura paused, was it really the same night that she stood before Inner as she held out a hand and asked her if she wanted to know the truth and learn from a past incarnation of herself? Instead the pinkette just nodded her head.

Clapping her hands together cheerfully Lyrica almost gushed happiness, **"Excellent! Well now you know the abridged version of my life and after-life so now I'm going to show you how to mind-fuck like it's going out of style!"**

Deadpanning at her strange new mental roommate Sakura idly wondered if she really did crack and if she'd wake up in a padded room. Although the idea of learning what Lyrica had displayed in the memories was extremely tempting. "But how am I going to learn? You weren't using chakra."

Lyrica scoffed, **"Yea, but it's quite similar to that spiritual half of that chakra stuff. A Mesmer is a spell weaver who imposes their will upon reality around them; we don't directly affect the mind."**

Frowning in confusion Sakura asked, "But isn't that what illusions are? The manipulation of chakra to affect the brain's interpretation of a person's surroundings?"

"**Pfft, I don't get into that sciency-mumbo jumbo. All I know is that my magic would thread itself into reality around me, and I would focus my will through my blades to sharpen it and make it reality. Your spiritual half of your chakra is close enough to my old magic that you should be able to do the same, to feel your intent insert itself in the world and make it real."**

Sakura gaped, "But genjutsu doesn't physically inflict wounds like how you did!"

Somehow the pinkette felt like the pumpkin was giving her a deadpan look, **"It's not genjutsu, I convince the bone that it is broke and it breaks, I convince the flesh that it is torn and it tears. I convince the world that there is a knife behind my opponent and there is. It's quite simple really."**

"Weave into reality…" Sakura breathed, "Weave _into _reality, of course!" She stated with excitement, everything finally making sense with a click in her mind as she thought back to the chaotic dome in the memory of the bandits "Your yin chakra manipulates the air particles into forming blades when you need them like someone with a wind affinity and it also bends the rays of light within a certain radius around you to create the illusionary effects!"

Lyrica sweatdropped, **"Erm- yea let's go with that."**

"It's genius!" Sakura exclaimed, "I wonder why nobody else thought of it."

"**Because usually people go with the status quo…Oh! I'm a poet and I didn't even know it!"** Lyrica shrugged before exclaiming excitedly, **"And besides, most Mesmers need a screw or two loose to be able to come up with the wacky things they want others to see on the spot. You don't think I'm **_**sane **_**do you? I am the Mad Queen and damn proud of my title!"**

Sakura paled, "I'm insane?!"

"**Does it matter?"** Lyrica asked, **"Cause frankly were you sane to begin with? With me prancing around your head?"** She once more grandiosely shrugged with great exaggeration, **"All the best Mesmers were mad, but sanity is overrated anyway. You see the world as you will it and if anyone says otherwise then they can take a hike, preferably over a cliff!" **

"So if I learn how to manipulate my yin chakra I'll be able to come up with illusions like you?" Sakura ventured.

"**Well first you'll need a focus, something to use as a center point of your will. I prefer my knives as I've always be one to get to the point,"** She chuckled, **"And whatever you choose influences what illusions you make, but I never bothered to learn the others."**

Sakura sighed before she leaned against a wall and slowly slumped to the ground, everything finally catching up to her. "Oh Kami," She groaned, could she ever look at Sasuke again without seeing Oswald's madness? Already she no longer added the –kun in her mind after feeling so downtrodden by him, and with what she saw from Lyrica she wouldn't be surprised if she began avoiding him slightly. This whole night was disorienting, and she felt so off kilter it was like nothing was real.

Head snapping up Sakura paused in her thoughts, was this all not real? Was this all but a strange and scary dream?

"**-I mean really, those Mesmers who use a great sword are squeamish chickens who don't like to get close to the snarling Charr, it isn't like the claws and teeth are **_**that**_** bad, they're only a few inches long-"**

Sakura interrupted her still ranting… friend?... "Is this real?"

Lyrica paused mid-rant, **"You made the deal so this is real, but it is also illusion so possibly a delusion. Or is it reality, with a dose of lethality? Is what you see true, or something to rue? Beware what you see in Lyssa's mirror for it may be false but show what is real."** She mused much to Sakura's confusion as she stared dumbly.

"Huh? And who's Lyssa? You mentioned that name before along with another one…I think it started with a G?...Grenth?" the pinkette asked.

"**Oh, them."** Lyrica waved flippantly, **"They're just the kami of my old world so to speak, Grenth's like your shinigami and Lyssa is the patron goddess of Mesmers but I won't get into it too much, just know that she holds domain over beauty, water, and illusion although she's had a hand or two in causing chaos." **Sakura wasn't sure how, but she swore Lyrica blinked. The flames in one eye going out momentarily before returning to normal.

Sakura felt her head throb, she wasn't sure how much more she could take before breaking down. This was all too much, too much information, too much emotional stress, too much…stuff. And to top it off she wasn't even sure if this was all just some loony dream concocted by her broken heart after being rejected so harshly again, or if she really did have some lunatic ghost dancing around her head. That last thought still passing through her head made her pause. "Ano, if you were a _ghost_. And still not reincarnated and as powerful as you said…Then why are you now in my head? If this is all real of course."

Lyrica froze from her odd humming and swaying she had been doing while Sakura was lost in thought trying to prevent mental overload. She was still for a moment before her flames flared furiously and she began shaking her fists wildly, **"That's because those damn nutjobs in the Lunatic Court tried to resurrect King Thorn a while back! The cause all sorts of chaos; candycorn minions picking fights with an undead army, turning people into ettins and ghouls looking for Oswald's body parts, and settling old joke vendettas with a ghostly squid."**

Eye twitching Sakura thought 'Lunatic' Court was a very apt name for the group, although she had no clue what an ettin was.

"**And when that failed to do more than bring back Oswald's beloved noble steed Gum-Drops-" **Sakura sweatdropped, **"They decided to get rid of me! Dang bastards somehow managed it too…"** She grumbled, muttering several swear words, **"But with me gone the seal will go bonkers for about two and a half centuries or so, then some poor suckers are gonna have to force my **_**darling**_** husband back when Halloween is over."** The sarcasm emphasized on the endearment was not lost on the pinkette but she chose not to comment.

Instead she decided enough was enough, "Okay, I'll admit I've gone slightly crazy to be able to come up with this."

"**Somebody's in de~nile!"** Lyrica sing-songed but was studiously ignored,

"I just want to go back home!"

"**Why didn't you just say so?!"** Lyrica exclaimed with a clap of her hands, **"Run along, jump like a rabbit, and don't forget to eat lots of candycorn!"**

"Wait, what?!" Sakura couldn't get much else in before her estranged inner turned previous incarnation snapped her fingers and the world shattered again. "STOP BREAKING REALITY!"

When she finally had decent surroundings Sakura looked around, finding herself on a solid platform with floating rubble and gears spitting dizzily around her and the same strange green water surrounding her lone island. Looking up she could see a white light. "Lyrica? Hello?"

No answer,

Mildly disturbed at the silence she decided to start climbing, deciding she didn't have much else to decide on. But with her first step she heard drums, steady beating drums. "Oh what now?" She moaned.

It was then she noticed the green water rising.

Slightly freaked out, Sakura began hopping onto the lowest piece of rubble, pleased that at least her chakra worked the same in this strange place. Then she heard the brass low and suspenseful with a slight sense of urgency. Deciding to ignore it she stepped up the jagged bricks, making sure of her footing before moving on.

Then, she heard it. Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock.

The water surged upwards, completely consuming her starting platform and Sakura would swear even under pain of torture that she saw skeletal hands scrabbling at the stone before it was covered. "SHIIIIIT!"

Jumping as high as she could the music clashed in a menacing taunting reminder of the ever rising green water that she didn't know what would do to her if it touched her but didn't want to find out. She lunged for the next floating gear, landing on the edge and using her chakra to latch onto the portion she had managed to stick her feet on before jumping to the next clump of broken off stone. Grabbing the ledge with her arms the pinkette scrabbled up to her feet, ignoring the scrapes on her arms and legs as her mind was consumed with only the desire to get the hell away from the freaky green water.

Half-way up the dizzying spiral Sakura felt her lungs burning as though they would burst, her short hair was stuck to the back of her neck by sweat and her legs and arms felt as though they were burning rubber. But she couldn't stop, every time she felt as though she couldn't go on one look down was all it took to get her ass in gear. She had slowed down a little earlier on and the water had been only an inch from her shoes when a bony hand reached out to grab her. Thoroughly scared witless she had moved faster than Kakashi-sensei when told about an Icha-Icha sale. When she finally reached the white light Sakura felt like she was dying, but when she reached the literal hole in the sky she was stumped, what was she supposed to do?

Looking back at the water only a few feet away she thought, _"To hell with it, SHANNARO!"_

And jumped into the hole.

.

Eyes snapping open Sakura sat up ramrod straight with both hands slapped to her mouth to stifle a scream. She was breathing just as heavily as she was when climbing to her escape and her body felt slick with a cold sweat as her wide scared eyes took in the sight of her room, her simple, normal, SANE room. _"It was all a dream, oh thank Kami!"_ She thought, feeling almost boneless with relief. It was all a dream, nothing real, no crazy pumpkin person in her head, no previous lives in other worlds, just simple normal ninja life. She would never complain about Naruto or Kakashi-sensei's weird quirks again.

Letting out a sigh of utter relief Sakura flopped back into bed, turning her head to the side to get more comfortable when she saw them. Two deep black knives, with no guard and only the length of roughly a foot of curved and sharpened metal. Eyes so wide that they might pop out of her head Sakura really did scream.

It was real.

It was ALL real.

"_I'm descending into madness."_

"**It's not a decent dear, but an ascent. An ascent to Madness."** Lyrica's fiery voice cackled in her mind.

* * *

Okay! Hope you all enjoyed my little Halloween one-shot. I'm not going to continue this, it was just a little GW2/Naruto crossover that got lodged into my skull. If there are any Guildies out there did any of you notice the similarities between Oswald/Ewan and Sasuke/Itachi? Both older brothers would do anything to protect the younger and in the game Ewan's ghost is only concerned with his brother's wellbeing. And Nobody knows what Mad King Thorn looked like when alive so I tweaked it. Now I have this set in Post Forest of Death but Pre-Sand/Sound invasion for Naruto and after GW1 but before GW2 so Sasuke can't have Mad King Thorn in his head since Thorn shows up in GW2 and you as your character have to put him back into his realm. But I also used the similarities of Genjutsu and Mesmers since both use illusions and Lyssa's water affinity to build up Sakura as a potential genjutsu user since she was slotted as such early on but never really seemed to use it after becoming a med-nin.

If anyone wants to adopt or continue this PM me, if you don't know GW2 PM me and I'll be glad to explain further. And Lyrica as an NPC exists, but there is no Mad Queen, that's AU but I based he personality heavily on Mad King Thorn ;)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!


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